


Languages

by androgynousclintbarton



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Minor Jemma Simmons/Skye | Daisy Johnson, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-20
Updated: 2016-11-20
Packaged: 2018-09-01 04:26:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,451
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8607811
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/androgynousclintbarton/pseuds/androgynousclintbarton
Summary: Melinda decides that Daisy needs to learn a new language





	

  Melinda had been debating whether or not she really wanted to teach Daisy how to speak Mandarin for about a week. She had been working the agent to the core for the past few months, giving her strict lessons in hand-to-hand combat, weapons training, and everything else that she could think of. Another lesson on top of Daisy’s already busy schedule could be just a little too much for Daisy to handle, and Melinda didn’t want her to burn out before things got really nasty (and she knew they would. There was no way it would continue to stay so calm in the world. There was always new danger coming). 

   With all of that in mind, She had finally decided that Daisy needed these lessons. If they ever went undercover, it was nice to have a language that two agents shared and could speak to each other in that others couldn’t understand. Barton and Romonoff had Russian, Phil and Nick had Spanish (and boy was that a story she had to tell Daisy one day), and multiple other agents had one (if not more) language that they could use with one another when they were in a tight situation during an undercover op. It also made possibilities for undercover personalities much more vast and open (and as much as Melinda hated undercover jobs, it was useful to pretend to be a Chinese diplomat or some other foreign dignitary that didn’t speak English). 

   So it was decided. Daisy was going to learn Mandarin, and she was going to excel at it, like she did everything else that Melinda taught her. 

     She turned down a hallway, looking around the base for Daisy. With her luck, the young agent was probably in the mess hall filling up on her afternoon cup of coffee. Daisy seemed unable to live without the stuff in her system.

    “What you’re saying is highly improbable.” Jemma’s voice caught her attention, pulling her towards the rec room that she was just passing. There was only one person that could get such a response out of Jemma “I don’t think either of us could manage such a position.” 

Well, this didn’t sound like a conversation that Melinda wanted to subject herself to at all, but when she saw Daisy leaned back against the couch with one of her goofy smiles, she knew there was no escape. It was better to save Jemma from the embarrassment of having to listen to Daisy explain just how exactly they could manage…whatever it is they were talking about.

    “Well I don’t think…Oh, hey May.” Daisy sprang up in her spot, holding her afternoon cup of coffee close to her chest as if it held the secrets to all of her problems and dropping even a little bit of it would lead to her doom. “Am I late for training? I swear I set an alarm…” She had started to reach into her pocket for her phone, only stopping when Melinda held up a hand. 

   “You’re not late for anything, Daisy. Relax,” explained Melinda. Making her way into the room, she glanced over at Jemma and raised an eyebrow.

   “Right, I’ll see you later.” Jemma leaned down and pressed a gentle kiss to Daisy’s cheek, standing up once again and nodding towards Melinda before vacating the room. 

     “And I was just going to have the most amazing conversation ever.” The smile on Daisy’s face told Melinda everything she needed to know about what was on her mind, and, really, she didn’t need to details. “So, what’s up?”

    Glancing around the room for a moment, Melinda made her way over to the arm chair that sat across from the couch that Daisy was occupying and sat down so that she was a little more comfortable. Telling people they were going to have to learn a whole new language was never a fun conversation in her experience. 

“I’ve decided that you should learn Mandarin.” Daisy’s left eyebrow went up at the declaration. “It’ll be useful if we ever end up on an undercover mission, or if we’re captured and want to pass along information without the people around us knowing what we’re saying.”

    “And you’ve chosen Mandarin?” inquired Daisy, her hands gripping the coffee mug a little tighter.

   “I thought it would be easier to teach you my first language,” she explained, “and it would be an experience.”

    “It would,” Daisy chuckled, lifting her coffee cup up and taking a sip of the life-giving nectar ( her words) before leaning forward and setting the cup down on the coffee table that sat between the two of them. “but…”

   “But, what?” Melinda asked, prepping herself for Daisy to tell her that she was too busy, or too tired. That she needed time. All perfectly good reasons to hold off lessons, considering how hard Melinda had been working her in the past week. 

   “But it’s not necessary.” An even bigger smile spread across her face, and Melinda was just about to ask what exactly Daisy meant by that before the younger agent started to explain how she was planning on taking Jemma out to the nicest place she could find as soon as they were all free to explore the town without fearing being arrested... all in perfect Mandarin.

      It took Melinda a minute to regain her composure after Daisy had finished speaking. Of all the surprises that Daisy had hidden from her, this wasn’t really one that she had expected. 

“When did you learn?” Even she was a little shocked by the question. It wasn’t often that she pried into anyone else’s life, after all.

     “When I was still in my van working with the Rising Tide,” Daisy explained, a cheerful note in her voice as she thought back to those days in her past. “I had a lot more free time back then and i decided that i wanted to do something with it. My friends had a lot of suggestions...some of them not so legal...but I really liked the idea of learning a new language. I’ve never been particularly good at languages, as I’m sure Bobbi has made note of to you.” 

Thinking back to it, Melinda couldn’t help but smile a little as she recalled the Bobbi’s rant about being the only one other than May and Coulson who knew more than one language. She was especially upset about it because she didn’t go on a lot of missions with May, and Coulson wasn’t a field agent anymore. This left Bobbi in a situation of being the only one on her team who knew more than one language. She was definitely going to be happy to hear that this was not, in fact, the case, she just had to get used to the fact that if Melinda wasn’t there, she’d be the one speaking anything that wasn’t English or Mandarin. 

    “And you decided to learn Mandarin?” She finally pulled her attention back to the conversation “Not French, Spanish or another romance language? Something that’s closer to English?”

   “They didn’t interest me,” Daisy said with a shrug of her shoulders. “For some reason, I was drawn to the Chinese language, and I really liked the idea of learning Mandarin. I can’t explain it; it was just a choice I made.”

  “A good choice, i’d say,” declared Melinda. “Well…in that case, I guess I interrupted your conversation with Jemma for no reason.”

    Daisy laughed out loud at the sound of that. “I’m sure she’s very thankful for your intrusion,” she said through fits of laughter. “She always gets uncomfortable when we talk about sex. You’d think the girl wasn’t a demon in bed.”

   Holding up her hand, Melinda winced at the new information that she had gathered against her will. “I don’t want to know any more,” she stated, pushing herself to her feet and heading towards the door. “I’ll see you in the morning for hand-to-hand combat training?”

   “Always looking forward to new bruises,” Daisy smiled up at her, giving her a playful salute and reaching over to retrieve her coffee from the table. “I’ll see you in the morning May.”

    “Yes, you will” she smiled to herself. “Oh, and Daisy?”

“Yes?” the agent glanced back over at her, wondering what she had to say. 

“Tomorrow is full Mandarin. I want to see all of your skills in the language.”

     Where she expected a groan, she was greeted with the brightest smile that Daisy could muster “Yes Ma’am.” she beamed, excited to finally have someone to speak Mandarin with whenever they felt like it. It was one thing to learn the language, but using it with another person was so much more satisfying.


End file.
